**Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025 UK Registered Charity Number 1184471** ## **CONTENTS** ## 3 Legal and administrative information ## 4 Structure, governance and management ## 4 Objectives ## 5 Key achievements and activities ## 6 Financial review ## 9 Independent examiner’s report ## 10 Statement of financial activities ## 23 Future plans ## 24 More detail on our projects during the year |-|Section|1: Higher education support|Page 24| |---|---|---|---| |-|Section|2: Kenya family support programme|Page 41| |-|Section|3: Medical treatment|Page 60| |-|Section|4: Dandora school purchase|Page 67| |-|Section|5: Primary School Feeding programmes|Page 71| |-|Section|6: Primary school education|Page 76| |-|Section|7: Fighting period poverty|Page 80| |-|Section|8: Special needs|Page 84| |-|Section|9: Small business support|Page 90| |-|Section|10: Miscellaneous donations|Page 92| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 2 ## **Legal and administrative information** ## **Charity name** Help Change Lives ## **Charity number** 1184471 (Registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales) ## **Registered and correspondence address** Help Change Lives 5 The Fairway Northwood Middlesex HA6 3DZ ## **Website address** www.helpchangelives.org.uk ## **Trustees** Pallvee Shah, LLB, MSc, FCA, CTA Parus Shah, BSc, MSc Prashant Amatya, BSc, FCA ## **Chief executive officer** Pallvee Shah, LLB, MSc, FCA, CTA ## **Bankers** Barclays Bank Plc ## **Independent examiner** Red Emerald Ltd Suite 465, Building 4, North London Business Park Oakleigh Road South London N11 1GN United Kingdom Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 3 ## **Structure, governance and management** Help Change Lives (the ‘Charity’) is constituted as a charitable incorporated organisation (‘CIO’) and registered as a charity with the Charity Commission for England & Wales effective from 17 July 2019. Our governing document is a constitution, which is based on the CIO Model Constitution as published by the Charity Commission for England & Wales with no material changes. Help Change Lives (the ‘Charity’) is governed by its board of trustees. Trustees are recruited after being identified as having skills, contacts and other attributes that will help the Charity in the furtherance of its object and activities. There are currently three trustees, one of whom (Prashant Amatya) is an independent trustee with significant experience in internal audit and governance. Pallvee Shah, the chair of trustees, conducts the day to day running of the charity. Future trustees must be appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the trustees. All trustees give their time voluntarily and received no remuneration or other benefits. The trustees also cover the rent and utilities expenses of the Charity, and do not charge for travel or expenses, so there are no head office costs. There is a child safeguarding policy in place that all trustees and people working for the charity are aware of and follow. DBS checks are carried out prior to commencement of trusteeship and the checks are carried out again in line with statutory requirements. ## **Objectives** The objects of the Charity, as set out in our constitution, are: _“… the prevention or relief of poverty anywhere in the world by providing grants, items and services to individuals in need, and/or charities, other organisations or persons working to prevent or relieve poverty for the public benefit._ _This includes in particular, but not exclusively, the advancement of education with the aim of reducing poverty, provision of food, water, clothing, shelter, health aids and income generating opportunities to underprivileged persons, and contributing to social and economic development.”_ In planning our activities for the year, we kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit at our trustee meetings. 100% of all non-trustee donations are spent on our projects, as the trustees cover all the other administrative costs, transfer fees and fundraising costs of the charity, which we keep to a minimum. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 4 ## **Key achievements and activities** ## **We supported the following projects and had the following expenses in the year ended 31 March 2025:** |
**31 March 2025:**|
**31 March 2025:**|
**31 March 2025:**|
**31 March 2025:**|
**31 March 2025:**| |---|---|---|---|---| |**Help Change Lives**
**Donations Summaries for theyears ended 31 March 2025 and 2024**||||| ||**Countries**
**in which**
**help was**
**provided**|**Year**
**ended 31**
**March**
**2025**|



**Countries**
**in which**
**help was**
**provided**|**Year**
**ended 31**
**March**
**2024**| |- Higher education support (secondary
school,universityand vocational training)|Kenya|£352,318|Kenya|£212,545| |- Kenya familysupportprogramme|Kenya|£80,852|Kenya|£54,838| |- Medical treatment|Kenya|£49,822|Kenya|£42,190| |- Dandora schoolpurchase|Kenya|£24,869||£0| |- HCLprimaryschool feeding programmes|Kenya|£22,474|Kenya|£6,363| |- Primaryschool education|Kenya|£18,084|Kenya|£11,958| |- Fighting periodpoverty|Kenya|£13,294|Kenya and
Uganda|£19,842| |- Special needs children|Kenya|£11,805|Kenya|£5,723| |- Small business support|Kenya|£3,771|Kenya|£6,069| |- Miscellaneous donations|Kenya|£1,084|Kenya|£2,890| |- SALVE International, Uganda street
children||£0|Uganda|£25,686| |- Mary's Meals,school feeding||£0|Malawi and
Zambia|
£20,222| |- Bank charges and transaction costs||£7,245||£2,755| |- Independent examination fees||£1,123||£1,080| |- Fundraisingcosts||£639||£154| |- Exchange rate loss on forex balances||£169||£777| |- Website, IT and data protection fees||£48||£83| |**Total funds spent in the year on accruals**
**basis**||**587,597**||**£413,176**| - **100% of all non-trustee donations were spent on our projects, as the trustees covered all the other administrative, transfer fees and fundraising costs of the charity, which we kept to a minimum (2%).** - All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or benefits. They also cover the rent and utilities expenses of the Charity, so there are no head office costs. - The independent examination for this year and the prior year has been carried out by a professional firm of chartered accountants and tax advisors called Red Emerald Limited, who received payment for their work. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 5 - During the year, our trustee and CEO, Pallvee Shah, made a field trip to Kenya in February 2025. She covered all the expenses for the trip herself. ## **Below is a summary of our expenditure by activity for this financial year.** - Our main areas of focus in the year were our higher education programme in Kenya (60%), our Kenya family support programme (14%) and medical treatment (8%). ## **Financial review** **1. Expenditure, staff and volunteers** All expenditure in the year has been on projects to further Help Change Lives’ charitable objectives. 100% of all non-trustee donations are spent on our projects, as the trustees cover all the other administrative costs, transfer fees and fundraising costs of the charity, which we keep to a minimum. There are no head office administrative or UK staff costs as the trustees are working on a voluntary basis from their own premises and do not charge for any travel or expenses. We have only two paid social workers in Kenya. The rest of the work is done by volunteers, including our trustees and our CEO. We are very thankful for our growing team of volunteers in Kenya, who enable us to do more good in places where we do not have a presence on the ground and who also carry out due diligence for us, make sure appeals are genuine by doing home and field visits, purchase Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 6 items, handle logistics, provide storage and space, informal medical and pharmaceutical support and assist in taking people for medical treatment. We estimate that more than 20 people volunteered to help us in this financial year, and we are very grateful indeed. We also thank the UK volunteers who helped us in the preparation of these accounts. ## **2. Income** Our main source of funds this year was donations from trustees and related parties (53%, prior year 70%). ## **3. Designated and restricted funds** £182,463 (30%, prior year 29%) of the donations received in the period were restricted funds given to support specific appeals. The trustees have designated £40,000 of unrestricted funds held at year-end for our higher education support programme. ## **4. Banking and investment policy** Funds held by the Charity are not invested. They are held as cash balances and a small amount in hand / mobile money in Kenya. The Charity has a UK Barclays Bank Community Account (Charity Account) that offers special charity rates. The Charity also has exclusive use of an I&M bank account in Kenya that was opened during the year. Bank fees and transaction costs of £7,245 were incurred in the period in the UK and in Kenya, including money transfer costs. These fees are covered by trustee donations. ## **5. Related party transactions** 53% (prior year 70%) of funds were raised from trustees and related parties. The amount includes Gift Aid and corporate matching. ## **6. Reserves policy** Our reserves policy is to hold at least enough funds to cover legally committed expenditure and forecast expenditure for the next four months. Our reserves at 31 March 2025 using accruals accounting were £64,489 (£51,919 at 31 March 2024). There was no legally committed expenditure at the year-end. The trustees have designated £40,000 of unrestricted funds held at year-end for our higher education support programme. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 7 Therefore, our restricted and designated funds at the year-end comprise: |**Cause**|**Restricted**
**or**
**designated**
**funds**|**Amount (£)**| |---|---|---| |- Higher education support (secondary
school, university and vocational training)|Designated
and
restricted|45,445| |- Dandora school purchase|Restricted|5,605| |- Other|Restricted|196| |**Total**||**51,246**| The balance of £13,242 in unrestricted funds covers our forecast unrestricted expenditure on the Kenya Families Support Programme and School Feeding Programme for the next few months. ## **7. Accounts format** We have used the accruals accounting format set out for small charities by the Charity Commission for England and Wales as our donations exceeded £250,000 in this accounting period. ## **8. Independent examination** Our financial statements are required to be independently examined as the Charity’s income for the year exceeded £25,000. We are not required to have a formal audit. This year, the independent examination has been carried out by a professional firm of chartered accountants and tax advisors called Red Emerald Limited, who received payment for their work. This report of the trustees was approved by the trustees on 19 January 2026 and signed on their behalf by: Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 8 ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** |**Report to the trustees/**
**members of**
**On accounts for the period**
**ended**
**Set out on pages**|Help Change Lives (a charitable incorporated organisation)|Help Change Lives (a charitable incorporated organisation)|Help Change Lives (a charitable incorporated organisation)| |---|---|---|---| ||31stMarch 2025|**Charity**
**no.**|1184471| ||10 to 23||| I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31[st] March 2025. **Responsibilities and basis of** As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in **report** accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. **Independent examiner's** The charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to undertake the **statement** examination by being a qualified member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and Chartered Institute of Taxation. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: - the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or - the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or - the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. **Date: 19 January 2026 Signed: Name: Jitesh Patel on behalf of Red Emerald Limited Relevant professional ACCA and CTA qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: Red Emerald Ltd, Suite 465, Building 4, North London Business Park Oakleigh Road South, London, N11 1GN, United Kingdom** Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 9 ## **Statement of financial activities** ||Help Change Lives|Help Change Lives|Help Change Lives|Help Change Lives|Charity No|1184471|| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||Annual accounts for the period||||||| ||**Period start date**|**1**|**April 2024**|**To**|**Period end**
**date**|**31 March 2025**|| ||||||||| |**Section A**|**Statement of**||**financial activities**||||| |**Recommended categories by**
**activity**||Guidance Notes|**Unrestricted**
**funds**|
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**|**Endowment**
**funds**|
**Total funds**|**Prior year**
**funds**| ||||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**| |**Incoming resources(Note 3)**|||F01|F02|F03|F04|F05| |**Income and endowments from:**|||||||| |Donations and legacies||S01|417,704|182,463|-|600,167|389,514| |Charitable activities||S02|-|-|-|-|-| |Other tradingactivities||S03|-|-|-|-|-| |Investments||S04|-|-||-|-| |Separate material item of income||S05|-|-|-|-|-| |Other||S06||-|-|-|-| |**_Total_**||S07|417,704|182,463|-|600,167|389,514| |**Resources expended(Note 6)**|||||||| |**Expenditure on:**|||||||| |Raising funds||S08|639||-|639|154| |Charitable activities||S09|412,153|173,682|-|585,835|411,943| |Independent examination fees accrual||S10|1,123||-|1,123|1,080| |Other||S11|-|-|-|-|-| |**_Total_**||S12|413,915|173,682|-|587,597|413,176| ||||||||| |**Net income/(expenditure) before investment**
**gains/(losses)**||S13|3,789|8,781|-|12,571|23,662
-| |Netgains/(losses)on investments||S14|-|-|-|-|-| |**Net income/(expenditure)**||S15|3,789|8,781|-|12,571|23,662
-| |**Extraordinary items**||S16||-|-|-|-| |**Transfers between funds**||S17|7,755|7,755
-|-|-|-| |**Other recognised** **gains/(losses):**|||||||| |Gains and losses on revaluation of fixed assets for the charity’s
ow n use||S18|-|-|-|-|-| |Othergains/(losses)||S19||-|-|-|-| |**_Net movement in funds_**||S20|11,544|1,025|-|12,571|23,662
-| ||||||||| |**_Reconciliation of funds:_**|||||||| |Total funds brought forw ard||S21|41,697|10,222|-|51,919|75,581| |**_Total funds carried forward_**||S22|53,242|11,247|-|64,489|51,919| |1|||||||| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 10 |c
**Section B Balance sheet**|c
**Section B Balance sheet**|||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||Guidan|**Unrestricted**
**funds**|**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**|**Endowme**
**nt funds**|**Total this**
**year**|**Total last**
**year**| |||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**| |**Fixed assets**||F01|F02|F03|F04|F05| |**Intangible assets(Note 15)**|B01|-|-|-|-|-| |**Tangible assets(Note 14)**|B02|-|-|-|-|-| |**Heritage assets(Note 16)**|B03|-|-|-|-|-| |**Investments(Note 17)**|B04|-|-|-|-|-| |**Total fixed assets**|B05|-|-|-|-|-| |**Current assets**||||||| |**Stocks(Note 18)**|B06|-|-|-|-|-| |**Debtors(Note 19)**|B07|- 564|6,021|-|5,457|2,040| |**Investments(Note 17.4)**|B08|-|-|-|-|-| |**Cash at bank and in hand(Note 24)**|B09|53,805|5,226|-|59,031|49,878| |**Total current assets**|B10|53,242|11,247|-|64,489|51,919| |||||||| |**Creditors: amounts falling due**
**within oneyear(Note 20)**|B11|-|-|-|-|-| |||||||| |**Net current assets/(liabilities)**|B12|53,242|11,247|-|64,489|51,919| |||||||| |**Total assets less current liabilities**|B13|53,242|11,247|**-**|64,489|51,919| |||||||| |**Creditors: amounts falling due after**
**oneyear(Note 20)**|B14|-|-|-|-|-| |**Provisions for liabilities**|B15|-|-|-|-|-| |||||||| |**Total net assets or liabilities**|B16|53,242|11,247|-|64,489|51,919| |||||||| |**Funds of the Charity**||||||| |**Endowment funds(Note 27)**|B17|-||-|-|-| |**Restricted income funds(Note 27)**|B18||11,247||11,247|10,222| |**Unrestricted funds**|B19|53,242||-|53,242|41,697| |**Revaluation reserve**|B20||||-|-| |**Total funds**|B21|53,242|11,247|-|64,489|51,919| |||||||| |**Signed by one or two trustees on**
**behalf of all the trustees**||Signature||Print|Name|Date of
approval| |||||Pallvee Shah||19/01/2026| |||||Parus Shah||19/01/2026| |||||Prashant Amatya||19/01/2026| |||||||| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 11 Help Change Lives Section C Notes to the account5 Note 1 Basis of preparation seetlon shouldlx eompletedby &lleh•rFtles 1.1 Basis of accounting These 3ccounts have been prep3red under the historic31 cost convemion with items recognised at cost or tr3ns3cbon value unless othemise staled In the relevant notelsl to these accounts The accounts havE been repared In accordance with- the Statement of Recommended Practice Accounting and Reporting ty Charrties preparing their accounts in accord3nce with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable In the UK and Republic of Ireland IFRS 1021 Issued on 16 July 2014 and ￿7th. and wryth. the Financial Reportsng Standard applicable in the Unrted Mngdom and Republic of Ireland IFRS and voth thE Charities Act 2011 The charity constitrjtes a public benefit entity as defined FRS 102, -Tick 85 8ppropriate 1.2 Golng eoneem If there 4re malerialun¢ert4inties relatedto events OT cond￿0￿$ that ¢0Sts¥rrifi¢antdoubt on the charitys ability to ontinue 4$ 4 going CO￿￿n, ple4se Provide th¢ follownB det4ils or st4ts"Not4ppli¢4bl¢", if4ppTopfi4ts.' An explanation as 10 those factors that suppor the conclusion that the charity Is a going concern-. Notappllcable Disclosure of arw uncert31nties that make the going concem assumpbon doubttul, Notappllcabfe Where accounts are not prepared on a going concern basis, please disclose this fact togetherwith thp basis on which the trustees prepared the 3ccounls 3nd the re3son WFW the ch8riV Is not regarded 88 3 going concern. Notapplicabfe 1.3 Change of accounting policy Thp accounts present a true and fairview and thE accounting policies adopted are those Dudinpd in note ? 2 Yes, Please dlsclose.. (g the Mture ol the change &¢COUnllng poIIcy,' (19 the Yeasons why apptylng the new ec¢oUnt1￿ pollcy prOv￿e$ more reliable and more Yelevant information,. and (iii) the &rnount of the adjustmentfor each li￿ affectrd the currentpericrfl, e￿hpl10rperi0dpresented aml the aBgreBate lmount of the 4diustm¢ntr¢l4tinB to periods before tIK458 prnsented, 3.44 FRS 102 SORP. Trustees. annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 12 Hel Chan e Lives 1A Changes to a¢countkng esllmates No chang85 to accounting &slim at85 occU￿￿d In th8 r8porting p8riod13 46 FRS 102 SORPI Y85. Please discb5e.' (i} the nature ofany changes,. P&)t appll¢abl• (li) t￿ effect oflhe change on I￿Ome and expense or assets and liabilities for the currentperiod,. and P*t applicable (iii) where pr6ctlC8ble, the ellect of the chenpe in or more luture perlods. P*t applicable 1.6 Materf￿ prlor yoar error8 No m8ten81 pnor error have been Identified In the reporting penod13 47 FRS 102 SORPI Yes, Please dlsclosa (i) the nature of the priorperiod error.. P*)t applicable (li) lor e8ch pr￿rper￿d presented in the accounts, the amount olthe correctlon for each ttccount Mne Item affected,. anLI P*t appli¢4ble (iiij the amount olthe corr8Ctlon at th8 beglnnlw olthe earmestprtorperfod presented the accounts. P&)t ippllcabl• Trustees. annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 13 Help Change Lives Accouhtkng polltl INCOME These InclujediTr1￿ 3tdernerrtoTFif4*K*4 Attl*lle8FoFwwhe cts1￿Y￿￿me￿ ￿lIk￿lOthe1￿￿￿$. rt Is￿(￿ellIe￿th￿￿￿￿1Tw1￿¢trVa*s wll We￿Ethe r￿￿r(el *nd tF¢ r41*￿￿ rio Yos ew￿d(￿¥t￿nItt￿wthPF￿S 102 ￿FRs 1CQ. Yes fypnts *￿long IntheS(FAwhentk¢gwv1inc￿The KewrtiC￿cIrte￿aè￿rna (£ 10tos12FRg1￿ SOW) htko thWrfDMffr£*￿￿￿1dYT￿t£,Inc￿omusl crIytr￿T￿￿ynl￿￿dto rio Ihe)wrf oNYr£uJts*aen1*tperlJM&nce rdÈtedC￿￿1lonsa￿ mel I516F￿ 102 pi Lewrle% LDg8ci&g weirc1￿￿ Int￿soFA¥￿eTr￿x*wl Ig P￿b￿.1￿&18, vlEntkbreh88 n￿r￿ 01p￿,th8 Yes Df Yes g￿nts Inthewjti￿pemD Lll MinCtrTrerttnlhe￿1s1￿lid th¢1￿￿1¢￿tC￿l￿e thnoi AnyGIl ￿ t4Tro￿ cn 4¢tfkllon IscoWd￿dIO berort ollfh* t aDJlstrEfled&s¥￿￿￿￿toIhe s&mebJnd&slhe ￿lesSlY¢ nororthelemso1the*pea *ecllgJ Tix ¢lKi&llonsa￿aWIs No Y8s rnlslsmirtLKkdIDlf¢5oFA￿￿e1bQ{fi?r¢¥ ￿ wol￿t￿treI￿eOgOC* or c£uld Yes eACh￿UnlesSI￿pm¥￿I¢￿lt0C* Thecosi ofty *ock lothnefo&rfttsis¢thne￿tO No Cljkrt Inlhe In￿ht￿￿Oc￿8a￿￿8￿b￿a.IrW￿E t￿￿￿￿$br￿$&1e￿effj￿￿y9y&t A1￿￿￿jec￿lnII￿I Noonmlon. wh1(*) Lltr expededpr￿￿* *leIess1￿eejw*c￿5 ols?le. ar¢ ￿￿0￿￿*e￿ othertrA1ng*cD*ie¥ W￿￿the¢0T¢*l￿rty￿￿pth I Yos Includqd lnkn8￿A￿ Inccrnirg rqgwCqs¥thqnr￿￿￿b Lllg nkindtsu5obyknc￿fy trtth dn4iDns serdcrys llnd kilrt1•￿￿ni￿lnth￿ SCFA lh8gifttDl￿ gift No 1*ser4ces ono *lllleslh* *eG￿*￿Tre￿I￿fft￿eIywe1e￿lg￿ Yos Mo repdlrg Intk¢SOFA Y8s Vos This1sincl￿￿￿￿1Trtfrts 1swDb8￿￿and1hS￿m￿ntr￿I￿knI In¢ornBfmm l￿bersh*￿ttrf￿tts1ÈrtCd￿1ntherkl1L￿eoI￿￿ &￿r￿0y￿se0lnDo￿knS Ye5 No Y8s ¢ne*$ No O10tD$12FR*02S0BPlpDOoE olttw bxffieinthBgcFA ThISIttlud￿ rttllsedcwun￿l1$edjÈIrn ofIn*￿￿entS Irrtsbnwls ￿1￿241hetnd￿l Y8s Trustees. annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 14 Help Change Lives 2.3 EXPEN￿TuRE AFD LIABILITIES L￿1rti￿£ y*￿ell li￿lY￿￿nnrtth&t￿￿￿I3￿Is￿OT CDn*￿ik￿&￿Iy￿￿￿Ccrn￿itt1rythVCh&ftVto af w3[￿&￿ecert￿rt¥ Yes Nk 4PPUrt Nl p￿rt¢￿* 4PPUrt IrdJ*cthrnlfiJ￿￿IDnS Nnd EJK c¢rcsou￿￿￿,w￿Ilc￿rt1￿JWpCrtY CD*s￿l0L￿ cf Err *affcLErts ￿th￿l￿C¥C￿ Vos Gr•rtstrfAh￿￿oMxr￿e tonthor brying 0leerdceorr￿p￿ lobetsoM(*d. ntheS(fAtrte IVe￿tIne￿rt 0fthe0￿ h&s 0￿￿d￿l￿￿¥t¢lfledte￿ACe￿rothO￿t Grart$w￿LIe￿th0 ￿Vh￿￿1￿￿fea￿￿￿1IQrE &X8chTrJtotFe Ell*leat￿￿thn0rc￿tsntytD lsbx1ws￿￿d &li&bilrtytrthBiII ￿n￿ngo￿lI￿anrnU&t Ves Nk ethJnthKg¢0* The(h￿￿¥M￿￿ENrethkn￿p•5ID￿s aena rtem Yes ThB(*&rty h&g ￿￿MeasUr￿4 Pro¥lknforll*lNeB 4 1fekE51 esbrnate0T1re￿0irt t•xgJto$l￿e1￿¢(*jI￿K￿#lhe eKtsl1ry(4e The(*]￿lY &cc(ths IrLnEJ f￿1r￿n￿[rtg￿ InMl&l recOWptt￿a￿l P&M¥Jt4tr) 11 7 FB510250RP S*xtqLth mefjswemert Is ￿ LVPWWhs 2.4 ASSETS Yes The&￿Cl&tIm￿￿drnÈlh0dsU8￿ ? Thrthllnly phpEr4 ￿￿r￿l￿d b¥1￿ Eknlyth cu*thYOI leyal ￿h1$ Trt+Trth&*knnratet4ndfflelfthsLEth ttedlsclostsjln note95 Vos Nth The(h￿l¥ h&s hert&se ￿tel$, Ihit Is, rmrnorbytryastets ￿￿￿011¢, Scknbts.l￿￿1ojCa. m￿*&In9) ttirM)kK4IV tylheli cmr4xll0nlokn￿&x*￿￿Ure eLY￿1￿l￿raeS¥￿rn￿l￿d8 useU8sdlscloseOknrrffle5 6 1 Nl Yes Nk ThwI￿￿￿dthtc0St uedat Inrti&liy*co&t srd ￿bserv&nayètfB¥ ￿￿Ue¢haT￿8ké ￿Uela 1k Is rppIiE￿tOunk8tÈd￿￿*￿￿ntS c&rtbJ ma￿u￿￿re1￿*fyIn￿Ilchc￿lt18rne￿1￿￿*C￿st1e￿ Yos Nth M4￿rtY dthofis5sthanl r0rt0lnu￿CM*1￿jetm*￿tm￿1>JIv* # I￿lO￿tior¢￿l oin Yos pmoteE6 Is#Me ￿ue wodded&s ofbcht+l&Je &¢tPAlY &reme￿tst prO￿l￿bY1ternSol￿0¢k Yos n CO￿ &ny IElikfAytoDo)Jonthe CDrtt& Nth btr*a Nth Tha(*&rty h&g h&g r￿￿&t￿ents￿lIChrthD￿￿tsr￿Z￿e tr perdiryth8ir 3dBSndc￿hAnd c&thqqJ%Elerts wrth ThBg8 Yes hcrthuntornc￿￿knrt Icm c Yos PLiICESADQPTED TO OA DIFFEftEtIl FR rMO* ABOVE Trustees. annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 15 |**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||||||| |**Note 3**|**Analysis of income**|||||| ||**Analysis**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**|**Restricted**
**income funds**|**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**|**Prior year**| ||||||**£**|**£**| |**Donations**
**and**
**legacies:**|Donations and gifts|355,860|162,804|-|518,665|327,408| ||Gift Aid|61,844|19,659|-|81,503|62,107| ||Legacies|-|-|-|-|-| ||General grants provided by
government/other charities|-|-|-|-|-| ||Membership subscriptions and
sponsorships which are in substance
donations|-|-|-|-|| ||Donatedgoods,facilities and services|-|-|-|-|-| ||**Total**|417,704.26|182,462.86|-|600,167|389,514| |||||||| |**Charitable**
**activities:**||-|-|-|-|-| ||Other|-|-|-|-|-| ||**Total**|-|-|-|-|-| |||||||| |**Other**
**trading**||-|-|-|-|-| ||Other|-|-|-|-|-| ||**Total**|-|-|-|-|-| |||||||| |**Income from**
**investments:**|Interest income|-|-|-|-|-| ||Dividend income|-|-|-|-|-| ||Rental and leasing income|-|-|-|-|-| ||Other|-|-|-|-|-| ||**Total**|-|-|-|-|-| |||||||| |**Separate**
**material item**
**of income:**||-|-|-|-|-| |||-|-|-|-|-| |||-|-|-|-|-| ||**Total**|-|-|-|-|-| |||||||| |**Other:**|Other|-|-|-|-|-| ||**Total**|-|-|-|-|-| |||||||| |||||||| |**TOTAL INCOME**||417,704|182,463|-|600,167|389,514| |||||||| |**Other information:**||||||| |**All income in the prior year was unrestricted except for:**
**(please provide description and amounts)**||Restricted donations of £113,249 were received in the year ended 31
March 2024 including Gift Aid. See note 27.2 for more details.||||| |||||||| |**Within the income items above the following items are**
**material: (please disclose the nature, amount and any**
**prioryear amounts)**||Donations from Parus Shah (related party and trustee of Help Change
Lives) amounted to £303,402 (prior year amount £261,593)||||| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 16 |**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||||||||| |**Note 6 Analysis of expenditure**|||||||||| |||**Thisyear**|||||**Lastyear**||| |**Analysis**||**Unrestricted**
**funds**|
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**|**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**|
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**|**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**| |**Expenditure on raising funds:**|||||**£**||||**£**| |Staging fundraising events||639|-|-|639|154|||154| |**Total expenditure on raising funds**||639|-|-|639|154|-|-|154| ||||||||||| |**Expenditure on charitable activities:**|||||||||| |-Higher education support (secondary school,||252,987
u|99,331|-|352,318|135,003|77,542|-|212,545| |-Kenya family support programme||77,829|3,023|-|80,852|51,524|3,314|-|54,838| |-Medical treatment||33,966|15,856|-|49,822|26,806|15,385|-|42,190| |-Dandora School Purchase||-|24,869|-|24,869|-|-|-|-| |- HCL primary school feeding programmes in
Kenya||2,221|20,253|-|22,474|-|6,363|-|6,363| |-Primary school education||16,456|1,629|-|18,084|11,937|21|-|11,958| |-Fighting period poverty||10,292|3,001|-|13,294|-|19,842|-|19,842| |-Special needs children||6,084|5,721|-|11,805|4,704
|1,019|-|5,724| |-Small business support||3,771|-|-|3,771|6,015|54|-|6,069| |-Miscellaneous donations||1,084|-|-|1,084|250|-|-|250| |-SALVE International Uganda street children||-|-|-|-|25,686|-|-|25,686| |-Mary's Meals school feeding||-|-|-|-|20,222|-|-|20,222| |-Kenya Children Centres feeding programme||-|-|-|-|2,640|-|-|2,640| |- Bank charges and transaction costs||7,245
|-|-|7,245|2,755
|-|-|2,755| |- Website,IT and dataprotection fees||48|-|-|48|83|-|-|83| |- Exchange rate loss on forex balances||169|-|-|169|777
|-|-|777| |**Total expenditure on charitable**
**activities**||412,153|173,682|-|585,835|288,402|123,541|-|411,943| ||||||||||| |**Separate material item of expense**|||||||||| |Independent examination accrual||1,123|-
|-|1,123|1,080|-|-|1,080| |||-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| |**Total other expenditure**||1,123|-|-|1,123|1,080|-|-|1,080| |**TOTAL EXPENDITURE**||413,915|173,682|-|587,597
|289,636
|123,541
|-|413,177| ||||||||||| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 17 |**Other information:**|**Other information:**||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||||||||| |**Note 6 continued: Analysis of expenditure on charitable activities**|||||||||| ||||||||||| |||**Thisyear**||||**Lastyear**|||| |**Activity or programme**||**Activities**
**undertaken**
**directly**|
**Grant**
**funding of**
**activities**|**Support**
**Costs**|**Total this**
**year**|**Activities**
**undertaken**
**directly**|
**Grant**
**funding of**
**activities**|**Support**
**Costs**|**Total last**
**year**| |||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**| |-Higher education support (secondary school,||352,318
u|||352,318|212,545|-|-|212,545| |-Kenya family support programme||80,852|||80,852|54,838|-|-|54,838| |-Medical treatment||49,822|||49,822|42,190|-|-|42,190| |-Dandora School Purchase||24,869|||24,869|-|-|-|-| |- HCL primary school feeding programmes in
Kenya||22,474|||22,474|6,363|-|-|6,363| |-Primary school education||18,084|||18,084|11,958|-|-|11,958| |-Fighting period poverty||13,294|||13,294|19,842|-|-|19,842| |-Special needs children||11,805|||11,805|5,723|-|-|5,723| |-Small business support||3,771|||3,771|6,069|-|-|6,069| |-Miscellaneous donations|||1,084||1,084|-|250|-|250| |-SALVE International Uganda street children|||||-|-|25,686|-|25,686| |-Mary's Meals school feeding|||||-|-|20,222|-|20,222| |-Kenya Children Centres feeding programme|||||-|-|2,640|-|2,640| |-Bank charges and transaction costs||7,245|||7,245|2,755|-|-|2,755| |-Website, IT and data protection fees||48|||48|83|-|-|83| |-Exchange rate loss on forex balances||169|||169|777|-|-|777| |**Total**||584,751|1,084|-|585,835|363,144|48,798|-|411,943| ||||||||||| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 18 |**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||| |**Note 11 Paid employees**||||| |**_Please complete this note if the charity has any employees._**||||| |**11.1 Staff Costs**||||| ||||**Thisyear**|**Lastyear**| ||||**£**|**£**| |**Salaries and wages**|||-|-| |**Social security costs**|||-|-| |**Pension costs(defined contribution scheme)**||||| |**Other employee benefits**||||-| |**Total staff costs**|||-|-| |**This year and last**
**year:**||||| |**Please provide details of expenditure on staff working for the**
**charity whose contracts are with and are paid by a related**
**party**|||
**Not applicable**|| |||||| |**_Please give details of the number of employees whose total employee benefits (excluding employer pension_**
**_costs) fell within each band of £10,000 from £60,000 upwards. If there are no such transactions, please enter_**
**_'true' in the box provided._**||||| |**No employees received employee benefits (excluding**
**employer pension costs) for the reporting period of more**
**than £60,000**|||**TRUE**|| |||||| |**Band**|||**Number of employees**|| ||||**Thisyear**|**Lastyear**| |**£60,000 to £69,999**|||-|-| |**£70,000 to £79,999**|||-|-| |**£80,000 to £89,999**|||-|-| |**£90,000 to £99,999**|||-|-| |**£100,000 to £109,999**|||-|-| |||||| ||||**Thisyear**|**Lastyear**| ||||**£**|**£**| |**Please provide the total amount paid to key management**
**personnel (includes trustees and senior management) for**
**their services to the charity. For specific amounts paid to**
**trustees, see Note 28.**|||-|-| |||||| |**11.2 Average head count in the year**|||**Thisyear**|**Lastyear**| ||||**Number**|**Number**| |**The parts of the charity in which the**
**employees work**||**Fundraising**|-|-| |||**Charitable Activities**|-|-| |||**Governance**|-|-| |||**Other**||| |||**Total**|-|-| |||||| |The charity's activities in the UK are carried out by its CEO, Pallvee|||Shah, who works full-time for the charity but is|| |not a paid employee. She does not receive any remuneration and provides her services on a pro bono basis.||||| |||||| |The charity's activities in Kenya are carried out by 2 social workers in Kenya, who are contractors, and by volunteers.||||| |The social workers are contractors who are paid the market rate for their work in Kenya. This year, they were paid||||| |£9,276 (prior year £5,588).||||| |||||| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 19 Help Change Lives Section C Notes tothe accounts (conti Note19 Debtors and prepayments Please complete this nore iffhe charity has any debtors orprepayments. 19.1 ￿nal￿SIS of debtors This Sear Last yèar Trade debtors PrepayTnents and accrued income other debtors s,￿7 Total S,￿7 Please complete 19.2 where a material debtoris recoverable more than a yearafter the reporting date. 19.2 Analysis of debtors recoverable in more than 1 sear (included in debtors above) This year Last year Trade debtors PrepayTnents and accrued income other debtors Total Section C Notes to the a¢¢ounts lcontl Note 24 Cash at bank and in hand Thi¥ Jear Last yEar Short tsrm ¢a$h Inve$tn*nt$ Shorttermde sits Cash at bank and on hand other Total le$$ than 3 n•)nth$ maturlt date 59,031 49,878 59,031 49,878 Trustees. annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 20 **Section C Notes to the accounts (cont) Note 27 Charity funds 27.1 Details of material funds held and movements during the CURRENT reporting period** _**Please give details of the movements of material individual funds in the reporting period together with a balancing figure for 'Other funds'. The 'Total funds' figure below should reconcile to 'Total funds' in the balance sheet.**_ |||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Note 27 Charity funds**||||||||| |**27.1 Details of material funds held and movements during the CURRENT reporting period**||||||||| |**_Please give details of the movements of material individual funds in th_**
**_The 'Total funds' figure below should reconcile to 'Total funds' in the b_**|||**_e reporting period together with a balancing figure for 'Other funds'._**
**_alance sheet._**|||||| |**_* Key: PE - permanent endowment funds; EE - expendible endowment_**
**_charity; and U - unrestricted funds_**|||**_funds; R - re_**|**_stricted income funds, including special trusts, of the_**||||| |**Fund names**|**Type PE,**
**EE R or**
**UR ***|
**Purpose and Restrictions**|**Fund**
**balances**
**brought**
**forward**|**Income**|**Expenditure**|**Transfers**|**Gains**
**and**
**losses**|**Fund**
**balances**
**carried**
**forward**| ||||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**| |Unrestricted|UR|None|41,697|417,704|-413,915|7,755||53,242| |Fighting Period Poverty|R|Fighting period poverty in Kenya|1,479|1,523|-3,001|-|-|0| |Medical Treatment|R|Providing medical treatment to
vulnerable individuals in Kenya|7,276|8,618|-15,856|-|-|38| |Dandora School
Purchase|R|Buying a primary school building in
Dandora slums in Kenya|-|30,474|-24,869|||5,605| |Higher Education|R|Higher education sponsorship at
secondary, university and vocational
level in Kenya|962|103,814|-99,331|||5,445| |**_Other funds_**|**R**||506|38,033|- 30,625|- 7,755|-|158| |**Total Funds**|||51,919|600,167|- 587,597|-|-|64,489| **Section C Notes to the accounts (cont) Note 27 Charity funds (cont) 27.2 Details of material funds held and movements during the PREVIOUS reporting period** _**Please give details of the movements of material individual funds in the reporting period together with a balancing figure for 'Other funds'. The 'Total funds' figure below should reconcile to 'Total funds' in the balance sheet.**_ _*** Key: PE - permanent endowment funds; EE - expendible endowment funds; R - restricted income funds, including special trusts, of the charity; and U - unrestricted funds**_ ||||**Fund**|||||**Fund**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Type PE,**||**balances**||||**Gains**|**balances**| ||**EE R or**|**Purpose and Restrictions**|**brought**||||**and**|**carried**| ||**UR ***||**forward**|**Income**|**Expenditure**|**Transfers**|**losses**|**forward**| |**Fund names**|||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**| |Unrestricted|UR|None|55,068|275,185|-288,556|-||41,697| |Fighting Period Poverty|R|Fighting period poverty in Kenya|6,228|15,093|-19,842|-|-|1,479| |||Providing medical treatment to||||||| |Medical Treatment|R|vulnerable individuals in Kenya|12,285|15,385|-20,393|-|-|7,276| |**_Other funds_**|**R**||2,000|82,771|- 83,305|-|-|1,467| |||**Total Funds**|75,581|388,434|- 412,096|-|-|51,919| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 21 |**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**|**Section C Notes to the accounts (cont)**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||||||| |**Note 27 Charity funds (cont)**||||||| |**27.3 Transfers between funds**||||||| |**This year and last year**||||||| ||**Reason for transfer and where endowment is converted to**
**income, legalpower for its conversion**|||||**Amount**| |Between unrestricted and
restricted funds|During this year, we fundraised for the SALVE International Tailoring
Programme, which we had already donated to in the previous
financial year from unrestricted funds. This was in agreement with
SALVE International. We therefore transferred the restricted funds
we raised into unrestricted funds to make good the amount donated.|||||**7,755**| |Between endowment and
restricted funds||||||| |Between endowment and
unrestricted funds||||||| |||||||| |**27.4 Designated funds**||||||| |**This year**||||||| |**Planned use**|**Purpose of the designation**|||||**Amount**| |Higher Education Appeal|Boost the reserves earmarked for our higher educaiton programme|||||**40,000**| |||||||| |||||||| |**Last year**||||||| |**Planned use**|**Purpose of the designation**|||||**Amount**| |Higher Education Appeal|Boost the reserves earmarked for our higher educaiton programme|||||**30,000**| Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 22 **Section C Notes to the accounts (cont) Note 29 Additional Disclosures The following are significant matters which are not covered in other notes and need to be included to provide a proper understanding of the accounts. If there is insufficient room here, please add a separate sheet.** Not applicable Approved by the trustees on 19 January 2026 and signed on behalf of the trustees by: ## **Future plans** As of 31 March 2025, our future plans include continuation of the programmes carried out in this financial year, including further support to Rehema Community Centre Comprehensive School in Dandora through refurbishment work and bursaries. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 23 ## **More detail on our projects during the year** Set out below are our achievements and activities in the year. One of the highlights was the trustee/CEO trip by Pallvee Shah to Kenya in February 2025 to visit the families we support in Kakamega and surrounding areas, as well as the special needs school we support in Kakamega, a vocational training centre and a boarding secondary school in Vihiga county. **1. Higher education support (secondary school, university and vocational training), Kenya (£352,318, prior year £212,545)** ## **1.1 Secondary school sponsorships** At the end of this financial year, we were supporting 1,338 Kenyan students in secondary school and junior secondary school, and helped another 38 students with shopping or partial fees. They come from all over Kenya, and most are boarding. Some students have literally turned up to school with nothing but a dream and a desperate hope. Our sponsorship is essential to help uplift and empower children and reduce inequality in society. We sponsor the children’s fees and also buy the students boarding and learning items needed for school, including a trunk, mattresses, blankets, buckets, textbooks, exercise books, stationery, reams, uniforms, shoes etc. We have started many revision book libraries for secondary schools. These children are often the first in their family to go to secondary school, have no light or extra books at home, their parents can’t help them study and they often have to help with work at home and to earn money. Despite this, some of them are still scoring A grades, showing how intelligent they are. Revision books can change the future of many of these children and help put them on an equal footing with their classmates. We also provide revision books to groups of students and facilitate study sessions in the holidays in Kakamega, Luanda and Dandora slums in Nairobi. We have also tried to extend our help to the wider family where we can take them into our family support programme. One way we identify children especially needing intervention is through a fall in grades or through the teachers who volunteer with us. They are the closest to knowing the most vulnerable in the school. We have a network of around 20 teacher volunteers now and they do so much to uplift and empower these students, literally changing their lives. We also help with school lunches and dinners during exam time, and provided exam materials to students, many of whom are about to sit important end of junior secondary and end of secondary school examinations without calculators, maths tables, geometrical sets or stationery. At Luora Comprehensive School we also assisted with mattresses and blankets for students who lived too far away or did not have food at home, and so spent the exam nights sleeping at the school and got dinner at the school as well. We were and are still constantly getting pleas to help students with school fees for secondary school, many of which are boarding schools. Some children are orphans or partial orphans, being brought up by aged grandparents, or have parents or caretakers with medical problems. We are so thankful for our wonderful supporters for sponsoring a good many of them. This is one of the best ways to make a difference and uplift and empower a poor child. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 24 1.1.1 Helping with boarding school items that are unaffordable for the students we support A student outside her home – the students often live in rural villages with aging grandparents who are unable to support them to go to secondary school Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 25 Helping with set books, exercise books, stationery, reams, dictionaries, calculators and so on that are unaffordable for the students we support. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 26 A young girl, eager to learn and part of our family support programme, with some of the books and items we bought for her to go to school Helping with boarding school requirements through teachers Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 27 ## 1.1.2 Helping students join school A girl living in dire conditions in Homa Bay County who we helped rejoin school, with the help of a local deputy headmaster. Volunteers are essential to our work. 1.1.3 Investigating the reasons for poor performance and helping the family as part of our Kenya Family Support programme A student we are supporting dropped a lot in grades. We asked the deputy headmaster to investigate. The story was so sad. He had been abandoned by the mother, he did not know his father and was living with aged, ailing grandparents. They have no food, he had one shirt he wore at school, washed at night and wore again the next day. He had to keep asking to borrow items and was really not doing well mentally with all the stress and worry. We bought him clothes, shoes, uniform and the whole family food, with the help of the teacher. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 28 Photos on the next page- The mother of one of our Form 1 students from Nairobi stopped communicating. We were so puzzled as we knew she really valued her daughter’s education. We sent someone to the school to find out what was going on. It was heartbreaking. Her phone had crashed (in the photo it’s held together by a shoelace, and you can see the hopelessness and despair on her face). She lost our contacts. She couldn’t pay her rent after her husband left her, so all their things were sold by the landlord. Her daughter was in school due to merciful teachers as the school fees hadn’t been paid. She had been given a job paying £1.21 a day plus lunch at a ‘hotel’ out of pity, and a small room with a damp floor, and one thin mattress for her, the Form 1 daughter and a 3-year-old to share. NO BLANKET and NO GLASS IN THE WINDOWS. She was paying 36p a day to get her daughter to school so not much was left over for food or anything else. As soon as we found her, we paid the fees, and bought her a big warm duvet and a mosquito net. The smile on her face was wonderful. Then we bought her food, a phone and gave her reusable pad kits. We also found her another room to rent, and bought her a bed, mattress, a gas cooker and other household items. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 29 ## 1.1.4 Group study sessions with revision books Below is a group of students revising together in the holidays. We provide the revision books, and the school provides the premises for free. Group study helps them catch up on areas they might not have understood properly in their different schools. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 30 1.1.5 Revision book libraries in 16 schools / centres We had a vision to start revision book resource libraries in places where we have groups of sponsored students. In FY25 we helped 3,105 student in 16 schools / centres with 764 revision books. It has made a huge impact (see feedback below). It’s a huge step to reducing inequality as these students can’t afford the books and really need them. The teachers also use them as teaching aids. Feedback from a school where 33 students are sharing 29 revision books: “Good afternoon Madam. I would like to report that the books that you that you donated to our school has impacted positively on the individual students' results. The books are being used on a rotational basis where a student borrows for a few days with a maximum period of one week. While the book is still out there with another user, whoever would like to use it next makes a booking and a notice is given to the current user. The shortage or scarcity of the titles has spurred competition among students. The slow learners are given a little more time with the texts than fast learners. Subject teachers are sometimes involved directly to help the learners during remedial periods. In last examination marking the end of term two, the students performance improved generally. The average mean was C+. That is a clear indicator that the revision books are being used well and the outcome is positive. We sincerely thank you for this milestone in the lives of these students. Thank you...”. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 31 - 1.1.6 Providing exam materials, exam feeding and mattresses and blankets Below are 32 students from 2 schools, to whom we gave exam materials for their KCSE end of secondary school exams last week. They got them in the nick of time, including calculators and maths tables. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 32 Can you imagine going into exams hungry, without a calculator, pens and pencils and after walking huge distances? So delighted to have helped 123 very vulnerable students with exam items and to feed 459 students during exams, all from Homa Bay, Kisii and Dandora slums Nairobi. 22 students also got mattresses and blankets so that they didn’t have to trek long distances, including across a river, to come to school for exams. They get to take them home afterwards. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 33 - 1.1.7 Pallvee visiting 2 of the schools where we are supporting pupils in February 2025 Pallvee visited Lwanda Secondary School and St Aloys Reru Girl’s Secondary School near Kisumu during her visit to Kenya. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 34 Maxwell also visited a lot of schools in Homa Bay and Kisii counties in early 2024 to check on the students we are supporting there and to supervise the school feeding programmes we have at Luora Comprehensive School and Daraja Mbili Comprehensive School. ## **1.2 University education** We are so very proud of the 75 children we sponsored at KCSE (end of secondary school exams in Kenya) in December 2023. The results were released in 2024 and 38 of the students scored a C+ or higher, making them eligible to join university. 5 students got straight A’s and are doing BSc Medicine and Surgery, which is an incredible achievement that will completely change their lives, and those of their families. 18 got B or higher. This is really impressive given their extremely vulnerable backgrounds, often studying with no electricity or parental help, often out of school as they are sent home to get fees and having to work to get food on the table. Our students are doing a huge range of degrees at university, including Biotechnology, Software Engineering, Law, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Business Administration with IT, Security Studies and Criminology, IT, Education in a range of subjects including physics etc. The students really need laptops as these are now essential for university education. Where possible, we support them with a laptop or smartphone to access online learning. We also support them with rent and food until they get government loans for this. These students have the best chances of finding good jobs after they graduate, and we look forward to them graduating and contributing to their families and communities. Altogether we supported 72 students at university in this financial year. One of our medical students got a scholarship to John Hopkins University in the USA, a very proud moment for us. This is one of the best medical schools in the USA and it’s an amazing opportunity for this young man, setting him up to be a top surgeon. He is a straight A student, absolutely brilliant, who couldn’t afford 3 meals a day at times, and couldn’t collect his secondary school certificate due to lack of funds to clear school fee arrears. Without it, he couldn’t go to university and had no future. We paid his secondary school arrears, helped him financially to start studying BSc Medicine & Surgery at University of Nairobi in August 2024, and provided him with a good laptop and sponsor letters for scholarships. We are so happy that he is now studying in the US with a shining, bright future ahead of him. He was assisted by another Kenyan student who has been through the process and is giving back, which is really wonderful. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 35 Photos below of some of our university students. Some of them are holding the laptops we donated to them to enable to do their degrees. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 36 Some of our university students were on attachment for a semester of the year, where they gained practical experience of working in the fields they are studying. We had a criminology student working at a police station, another student working in the finance department of his university, one as a broadcaster for the government of Machakos, another in food and beverage, and two as teachers. It’s a great initiative. However, they don’t get paid and instead have to pay for the experience, which is a slight drawback as none of them could have afforded it. We are glad we could support them. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 37 ## **1.3 Vocational training** We supported more than 20 students in vocational training. We actively encourage the students we sponsor who have gotten low marks in KCPE to choose this route so they can gain valuable skills to earn money and contribute positively to their families. The job market in Kenya is very competitive, and even university graduates find it difficult to find work. We support them with fees and course requirements, and many are in boarding school and so do not have to worry about food or accommodation. Photos below of some the course requirements we provided for the students we are supporting in vocational training. They are doing well, and these courses ensure that the students who might find secondary school challenging can learn useful skills and get jobs after graduating. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 38 We supported a young family where the husband had been severely mistreated by various family members to the extent he ran away and worked as a herdsman just for food and shelter for 8 years. He got married to a deaf and dumb lady and had a child with her. They were referred to us for help and we built them a new house, toilet, bathroom and provided clothes, shoes and food. However, sadly the husband then abandoned his wife and child as the father who mistreated him wanted him back, but not with a disabled wife!! He left her and took everything we had bought for them. She could stay in the house as the land belonged to her family. We enrolled her in a vocational training institute to refresh her knitting knowledge and bought her boarding items to join. Her family will look after the child for a while. The institute is very happy to have her and one of the instructors knows sign language. We wish her all the very best and a very bright future with our support. Pallvee met her when she visited this vocational training institute in February 2025. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 39 Pallvee visiting the students at Rosterman Vocational Training College during her trip to Kenya in February 2025 Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 40 ## **2. Kenya family support programme (£80,852, prior year £54,838)** ## **2.1 Introduction** In our Kenya family support programme, we are helping more than 200 families all over Kenya with food, toilets, housing, bedding, education, small business support and farming. Our goal is to make the families become independent of our help and leave our programme. We provide medium-term support to very vulnerable families. We find the families, and some are also referred to us by schools, other charities, neighbours and our contacts. We assess the families carefully and help the ones in need. We have started supporting families in other parts of Kenya too, besides Kakamega area, where we know that they are in genuine need of help and usually are able to vet them through volunteers, mainly teachers on the ground. A lot of the families are headed by grandparents, disabled people, sick people or women who have been subject to abuse or abandonment, and consist of broken families or where children are at risk of turning to the streets. We aim to empower the families to become independent, improve their quality of life, and prevent the children ending up on the streets and instead help them to become valuable and independent members of society. We build homes and toilets, and provide monthly food and hygiene items, medical assistance, help with school enrolment, fees, uniforms and school supplies, reusable sanitary pads, clothes, shoes, beds, mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, solar lamps, medical treatment, start micro-businesses and provide farming help by buying seeds and fertiliser for the families who have land. We teach them permaculture training programme (helping the families make the best use of their land, further details below). We work hard to make the families independent and self-sufficient, as well as empowering them. We visit the families in Kakamega, Luanda and Vihiga counties often as that is where Maxwell and Maureen, our 2 social workers, are based. We provided family support and counselling sessions, as well as check up on the families to see how they are doing. Many of them don’t have phones and we only discover medical problems once we visit them. The families are also helped with medical treatment for a range of diseases ranging from breast and ovarian cancer, a hysterectomy, malaria cases, kidney diseases, osteomyelitis, high blood pressure, club feet, malnutrition, ADHD, schizophrenia, asthma and many more. Major medical cases are now in their own separate category further along in the report. Our work in Kakamega, Vihiga and Kisumu counties is mainly delivered directly by our social workers, Maureen Okweya Musungu and Maxwell Masoni, who are our only paid social workers. We are a no-frills charity and do not have offices in Kakamega, as our social workers spend all their time in the field. We keep costs to a minimum by buying food monthly from wholesalers or markets and buying all the clothing for our families from the market or obtaining them through donations. Pallvee had a wonderful trustee/CEO visit to Kenya in February 2025, and further details about her experiences are below. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 41 ## **2.2 Example of help provided:** - 2.2.1 Housing, food, furniture, clothes, shoes, toilets & bathrooms and solar lamps Shockingly poor, this girl was working instead of going to secondary school and got a straight A when we enrolled her late. We did a home visit and were so sad to see the conditions there. The family was in really dire straits. We built them a new house with a new toilet and bathroom, provided sofas, a table, beds, mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, as well as cooking, kitchen & eating items, clothes, shoes and food. And we are sponsoring the extremely bright girl in boarding secondary school. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 42 New 3 bulb solar lamp for an epileptic lady who had her arm amputated after it got burnt in a fire during a fit. The whole family was overjoyed. New houses for this young boy and his father- the boy had been adopted by another family as his father’s an alcoholic. He fell out with them and lived with his grandmother (who brews and sells alcohol for a living), so we moved him out of there as soon as possible, constructed a house him and another for his father (local tradition for an older boy to move out). Also, a new toilet under construction for another family. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 43 Andrew burnt his hands in an accident in a molasses factory. He tries to dig for a living with these hands as the factory fired him. His daughter then got epilepsy after an illness and his wife developed a mental problem. Life was extremely hard. We started helping them this year after the special needs school his daughter goes to alerted us about the family as they couldn’t pay any fees. We have built the family a new home and kitchen, provided food, farm inputs, and supported the daughter in special needs school and bought them sofas, chairs, beds, mattresses, blankets and nets and a coffee table. They are so absolutely delighted. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 44 These 2 ladies are in a very poor family referred to us by the driver we use in Kakamega when we need to travel far. The mum has epilepsy and had to return to her mum’s house with 3 kids when her husband kicked her out. The house and toilet were falling apart. Both ladies work hard but were really struggling. We have repaired their roof (it was full of holes), built a new toilet & bathroom and 2 rooms for the boys (need to be separate), taken her for scans and medical treatment and paid her son’s fees. We also give them food support. We will work hard to empower them as much as possible. Wishing them all the very best. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 45 Help Change Lives -]11 '1 .f.iJ Trustees, annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 46 A new family we started helping this year, where the grandmother is disabled with HIV, and some grandchildren have dropped out of school, one is already a young mum. Others are staying with various relatives due to lack of food and a leaking house that’s falling apart. They sleep on the floor and often go hungry. A community well-wisher referred them to us. Luckily 3 of the children are getting school lunch at Luora Comprehensive School, where Help Change Lives has a school feeding program. We helped them with food, a new house and a new toilet & bathroom. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 47 A grandmother outside her new toilet and bathroom in Kakamega. We have been supporting her grandson, Fred, with medical treatment for nephrotic syndrome since 2020. The new toilets have concrete floors, brick walls and a deep pit underneath for waste. These last the families for many years and are safe. There is a bathing room next door. Solar lamp for this grandmother with an amputation. She looks after the special needs grandchild on the bottom right, who we are supporting in boarding school and with medical treatment. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 48 Food and hygiene items distributions. Every 2 months we give out food for the next 2 months to more than 150 families. We also give out seeds and fertiliser to empower them to grow their own food. We buy wholesale wherever possible to minimise costs. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 49 Clothes and shoes donations- we regularly give out clothes and shoes that have been donated to us and also buy them for the families that we are supporting. Many are dressed in rags and have no shoes when we find them. They also need support with school uniforms, shoes and other items. They are always so delighted to get these basic items. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 50 ## 2.2.2 Christmas food donation to families in Dandora slums, Nairobi People were really struggling in Nairobi’s third largest slum, where we have been helping families since 2021. We helped 126 families with almost 9 tonnes (8,676kg) of maize flour. They were identified by our volunteer on the ground, working with the area chief. We divided them by family size, also taking into account the ages of the family members. The whole exercise went very smoothly, and we are very grateful. - 2.2.3 Medical treatment and medication provided to the families (some is included here, some in our Medical treatment section) We help the families in our support programme with routine and non-routine medical treatment, tests, medication and support with fare to go for treatment. Many of them have conditions that would never have been treated without our assistance due to complete lack of money, including cancers, hysterectomies, burns, malaria, asthma, infections, wounds, diabetes, high blood pressure, cataracts, and many more conditions. Another common ailment in poor families is jiggers. These are tiny insects that live in mud floors, burrow into feet, lay eggs that hatch and eat away at the flesh causing intense itching and holes. Pictured below is Maxwell removing jiggers from a family. He had made a home visit to this family the previous day, observed the jiggers and followed up with treatment, medication and also taught the mother how to carry on the treatment. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 51 The mother is quite neglectful, with bad hygiene, and we have to work very closely with this family to ensure the children are okay. The father is always at work as he prefers that to being at home. We are trying to help and counsel this family as much as possible Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 52 ## **2.3 Wonderful visit to Kenya** Pallvee, a trustee and our CEO, visited Kenya in February 2025 at her own expense. Her reflections are below: ## **Thoughts** I had an amazing visit to Kenya in February 2025. I spent 4 days in western Kenya, visiting 37 of the families we are helping in Kakamega, Kisumu and Vihiga Counties, 2 schools, a vocational training college and a special needs school. We also distributed reusable pads kits to 76 girls. I spent a fifth day in Dandora slums, Nairobi, at the school we are helping there (see section 4) It is always incredibly rewarding and fulfilling to see the impact we are making on the ground with my own eyes, to sit with the people we are helping in their homes and hear their stories, and also to gain insights on what more needs to be done. It was wonderful to catch up with Maureen and Maxwell, our 2 social workers on the ground and to bond as a team over many days driving to see all our families and I think they both like aloo paratha now! We had the obligatory car breakdowns with blown tires and even a blown fuel pump, and ended up changing cars entirely on the fourth day. It was wonderful to sit in the homes of the people we have helped, hear their stories, meet them personally and see how thankful they were - they truly believed God had sent me and couldn't thank me and bless me enough. Seeing the transformation in their homes and lives was truly incredible and heartwarming. What we are doing is really making a difference and helping change lives - turning around whole families one at a time and giving them hope and a better future. It was lovely to catch up with Maxwell and Maureen in person and spend 4 days with them. Below are some of the families I visited: 1. Deceptively happy photo, with a lot going on beneath the surface. This beautiful and resilient woman has suffered domestic abuse for a long time. Recently, the palm of her hand Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 53 was cut so badly that her fingers were almost severed. I can’t share the photos as they are horrific. She still can’t use her left hand properly and we have started physio for her now that the wounds have closed. I was so happy to see her as I had been worried about her condition. She is a strong and resilient lady. She and her husband have their own sets of children. She cared so much about her stepson that she took him to medical appointments that we paid for when the father wouldn’t, even though he wasn’t paying. I visited her at home last year and was shocked at first as the husband had a really nice house. Then I saw that her kids were relegated to a shack at the back, and he wouldn’t buy them any food. It was really sad. We were the ones providing food and education. She stuck around hoping things would get better, but instead they got a lot worse. We are now supporting her with rent and food whilst she gets back on her feet after leaving her husband, and we are also supporting 2 of her children in vocational training. She is thankfully still able to work as a tailor and earn some money, although she had to stop for a long time as she recovered from her injuries. Business is still picking up. We wish her all the very best and hope for a bright future for her and the kids. 2. Sadly this little baby’s mother died suddenly over the Christmas 2024 holidays, when the baby was just 1.5 months old. The baby might have died without our assistance, as the family can’t afford to buy formula milk. We have been supporting them with baby formula, diapers, clothing and food, as well as burial expenses for mum. We had supported the eldest sister in secondary school, and she is looking after the baby until she starts university in August 2025, when a relative has offered to help with our support. The sister is trying so hard and is doing really well with the huge responsibility Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 54 placed suddenly upon her shoulders. We will also be visiting regularly and offering guidance and support. Maureen and Maxwell are both experienced parents who love children. 3. Visiting Caren’s family- this was a shockingly poor family referred to us in October 2023 and it was so wonderful to see the improvement!! The kids had jiggers, were dressed in rags, the house was about to collapse, and the toilet was very dangerous. The kids weren’t in school properly and they couldn’t farm the land as it was so steep. We have helped with a new house, new kitchen and extra room for the boys, new building for another old boy we are supporting in vocational training, furniture, clothes, education, uniforms, food, spectacles and eye check-up for the daughter. Maxwell treated the children for jiggers as mentioned above. Their land was steeply sloping and full of trees and very difficult to farm. We have worked very hard and used our network to find an ex-agricultural officer who oversaw the digging of proper terraces to help them make the best out of it. We have also provided farm inputs. The goal is to make the family self-sufficient in food as soon as possible. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 55 The father earns £19 a month working two jobs and is rarely present. One of the older boys is also not contributing at all and in fact they had sold some land to pay for an apprenticeship for him, but he didn’t go. We are working on counselling them as a family. I also visited some of the special needs children we are supporting at home and visited Emusala Special Needs School. More on that in the Special Needs Children section below (see section 7). Finally, I visited Rosterman Vocational training centre, did a reusable pads distribution at Emukangu Primary school visited 2 other schools where we have pupils- Lwanda Secondary School and St Aloys Reru Girl’s Secondary School near Kisumu. More about these visits in the relevant sections. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 56 ## **2.4 Permaculture training** We train our families in permaculture to farm better and become independent of our food support. This year we extended our training to schools, so that they can grow their own food and the pupils can take the learning back home to grow more food. In March 2025, we trained approximately 2,000 students, teachers and parents on permaculture, 29 of our families, and gave out just under 200 reusable pad kits during an outreach programme covering 3 counties in western Kenya, starting in Kakamega and travelling to Homa Bay and Kisii. SALVE International's permaculture expert, Joshua Ariho, returned to Kenya for the third year running to teach our families and this time also schools (which was his idea) how to make better use of their land (permaculture). Joshua taught the families how to plant on seed beds, spacing, how to look after banana trees properly, enrich the soil through cross-planting, make their own fertiliser and to plant twice a year, amongst other things. Those without land were taught sack farming, which is amazing! We also provided seeds for carrots, spinach, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, sukuma wiki, watermelon, pumpkin, collards, nuts, avocados, mango and other greens; watering cans and sacks for those without much land He joined Maureen and Maxwell for this amazing programme that will enable the participants to farm effectively with lots of teaching and practical demonstrations. Even teachers who taught Agriculture learnt a lot and the students will take this knowledge back home to their parents and families. At a time when climate change is affecting farming, family sizes are increasing and plot sizes are decreasing, this is one of the most effective ways of helping ensure food security for the next generation. This is a commitment to creating lasting change. We trained pupils in 6 schools and left them with seed packets to plant and bear the fruits of this learning. We also encouraged all the schools to cultivate gardens for each year-group to practice on and to plant lots of fruit trees. We sponsor school feeding programmes in 2 of the schools we visited, and it would be wonderful if they could grow their own fruits and vegetables to supplement what we provide. Maureen and Maxwell enjoyed serving lunch to the children in these schools when they visited. Thousands of people will have a better life because of this collaboration. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 57 Maxwell and Maureen with Joshua and training in action ## **2.5 Giving out seeds and fertiliser** We also help the families within our Family Support programme with maize and bean seeds and fertiliser. We gave out over 4.5 tonnes of fertiliser (4,541kg) this financial year to approximately 85 families. By November 2024, some families have already harvested enough to sell excess crops to buy things they need. We are so pleased with the impact of this programme. The families plant mainly maize and beans in the long rains and also do a second planting in the short rains season, this time with other things such as vegetables, groundnuts and greens. We provide permaculture training and also seeds for carrots, spinach, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, sukuma wiki, watermelon, pumpkin, collards, nuts, avocados, mango and other greens; watering cans and sacks for those without much land. This is a huge step on the road to food independence for them. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 58 Some of the wonderful crops our families grew in the year with our assistance. So pleased to see this. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 59 ## **3. Medical treatment (£49,822, prior year £42,190 and more in Kenya Family Support)** We help provide treatment for poor Kenyans, who simply can’t pay to access healthcare and often can’t even afford the transport fare to go to hospital or food to feed themselves during and after treatment. We have helped treat a variety of illnesses including cancers, osteomyelitis, spinal injuries, kidney diseases, asthma, malnutrition, hysterectomies, club foot, lumps in the body, lipoma, high blood pressure, spinal and other injuries, prostate and liver issues, endometriosis, physiotherapy, mental illnesses, jiggers (small insects that bury into your feet and hands, lay eggs and eat away at your flesh) and so on, including minor injuries such as dog bites, sight tests with spectacles, and broken bones. We facilitate medical treatment for at least 10 to 15 people on average on a daily basis, and our help has meant that hundreds of people who couldn’t access even basic medical help are now feeling okay and able to live a normal life. We also provide help with tests, medicines and food support as needed, and if possible, we try to start businesses for the people we are helping so they can become independent and stand on their own two feet. We have also rescued people who are stuck in hospital due to unpaid medical bills, which keep racking up as the hospital refuses to discharge them until they pay. One cause of this is frequent doctors’ strikes in Kenya, which makes poor people resort to private hospitals for critical treatment, such as the burns victim pictured below. His family were forced to relocate after the floods and moved to low quality housing in a dumpsite. His gas canister exploded on him one day when his wife and daughter were out, giving him severe burns and destroying the house and everything in it. This was during the doctors’ strike, and he had to be admitted to a private hospital. His mum had to sell all her possessions to raise money for a deposit so that they would admit him. He had been stuck in hospital for three weeks by the time we helped him, and during this time he had been given NO TREATMENT, not even dressing changes, which were vital for his recovery. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 60 We helped him get discharged, paid for his follow-up medical treatment, rent and food for an extended period, and also started a mtumba (used clothing) business for him and his wife. Later when his wife got sick with severe menstrual bleeding, we also paid for her treatment. Pictured below is another burns victim we rescued in a similar situation, and other patients we helped in 2024. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 61 An amazing success story is that of Henry, who Pallvee caught up with in Kenya in February. Pictured below is Henry in the condition we had found him in when we first started helping him, starving, malnourished and with a severe leg wound that needed skin grafts and long-term treatment to heal completely, as well as many other complications. We paid for his treatment, medication, food and rent for a long period, and also started a tailoring business for him as he was an experienced tailor. He is now thriving and no longer needs our support. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 62 Pallvee also met Mama Selphar in February, who was so delighted to meet her! Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 63 When we first found her, her blood sugar was at 32 and she only had 5% her eyesight remaining due to lack of money for treatment or medicines. This was a new family in Kakamega family referred to us by a primary school teacher. They are extremely poor with six children. Mama Selphar is diabetic and had no money for medications. Her husband was doing casual jobs in Nairobi. They leased their land to pay for her treatment and couldn’t grow any food now. When we found them, there was no food in the house, or bedding. When Maureen took her to hospital, the tests showed that she had extremely high blood sugar, almost complete vision loss and kidney problems. When we delivered food to the family, Maureen reported that they had slept on an empty stomach the night before and on that day had only eaten some bananas. It’s so sad to see extreme poverty like this. We enrolled them into our Family Support Programme and have also paid fees for the children. We helped her with medical treatment and went on to support this family with a new house, toilet, beddings, clothing, fees and food. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 64 Collins was crawling on the floor with severe double club feet when we found him. With our help, he’s had surgeries, physiotherapy, counselling medical aids and is now walking, standing tall and able to do casual jobs. He’s now an independent young man with a future. We’ve helped the family with a toilet and bathroom, farming support and training and food. We also built him his own dream home. The family are incredibly grateful. We are currently sponsoring him to do vocational training as a cobbler at a boarding school. Pallvee went to visit him in Kenya and the whole family were so happy to see her. This is Joshua, who lived in squalor due to an untreated mental illness. Look at the difference! We helped with food, housing, family reconciliation, counselling and medical treatment. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 65 This little boy was severely ill over Christmas 2024 and quite a few times before that. He has sickle cell anaemia and often gets septicaemia, diarrhoea and vomiting. His father is a low paid assistant teacher in Dandora slums and doesn’t get paid during holidays. The mum has another small baby and this little boy to look after and does odd jobs. They do not earn much together. We have helped them with food, medical treatment, medicines and even a juicer so that he can get extra nutrition. His health improved and he was doing really well as can be seen in the photo below, but sadly passed away later. These 15 students in Dandora slums, Nairobi, were helped with eye tests and glasses. They were struggling to see and wouldn’t have done well in secondary school without this essential help. It is unfortunate that simple matters like this can put a halt to educational progress and success in life. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 66 ## **4. Dandora school purchase (£24,869, a new initiative)** Rehema Community Centre Comprehensive School (RCCCS) is a primary and junior secondary school in Dandora slums, Nairobi, with a large rubbish picker community and a very vulnerable student population. It had 246 students at the end of 2024 and had been forced to vacate its rented premises and move out. It urgently needed help to buy and refurbish a new building to use, otherwise the children would most likely have ended up out of school and picking rubbish to get food. We have been working with the founder of the school since 2022 to help the children and the community. The area is full of rubbish pickers and their children, who often also pick rubbish to survive. It is an extremely poor slum, the third largest in Nairobi, Kenya. We have been assisting this community in the following ways: sponsoring children at the school, including paying fees and buying uniform, sponsoring alumni in secondary school and university, providing school lunches during exam periods, and supporting the community with food, medical treatment, medicines and wheelchairs, and small business start-ups. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 67 We donated funds to buy and refurbish a school building that was available for sale nearby. The owner was keen to sell as he had tried to run a school there and it did not work as the students find it hard to pay fees given how poor the area is. We are really grateful to all the donors who came together to enable us to do this, including significant donors Bhagwanji Raja Charitable Foundation and the Devchandbhai and Kankuben Shah Foundation. Our trustee, Pallvee Shah, visited the school in February 2025 and this is her account: I was given a royal welcome with songs, dances, drama and poetry and it was wonderful to see how talented the students are and how much they appreciated our help. I also got to meet many medical patients we had helped in the slums, including the really cute baby below. I started by visiting the current building the school was renting. They had been told to vacate it at short notice, making them come to us for emergency help as they were in danger of closing. It was in a very bad state, with no windows, a terrible kitchen, crumbling walls and dirty, broken toilets. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 68 Help Change Lives Trustees, annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 69 We donated funds for a new school building for them to move into, held by a Kenyan entity acting in our interests, but this building also needed refurbishment. I went to see this building, and it was better, but still in a bad state and needed total refurbishment. Work began on the refurbishment in the next financial year, and we will update you on this building in our next annual report. There is also an update here in - our September 2025 newsletter: Help Change Lives Celebrating Achievements Since Easter 😊😊 Video below is of the new school building we donated towards prior to refurbishment, taken during my visit there in February 2025 Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 70 ## **5. Primary School Feeding programmes (£22,474, prior year £6,363)** We continued with our school feeding programme at Luora Comprehensive School in Homa Bay county, feeding 748 students. This is a school with a very vulnerable student population, and we have helped them with reusable sanitary pads, uniforms, feeding during exam periods and bedding, and some school families with extra support. We also started a second school feeding programme on 30 September 2024 at Daraja Mbili Comprehensive School in Kisii county, feeding 926 students. This is a slum school in Kisii county with a very vulnerable population as shown here in a local news article: Pupils by day, hawkers by night: Where children are forced to play family breadwinners (citizen.digital). The school is struggling with some students begging on the streets and dropping out for lessons, others on HIV medication that isn’t working as they are not getting enough food. We started sponsoring 30 of their vulnerable school-leavers joining secondary school this year. We have also done a reusable pads distribution there. The menstrual hygiene trainer who went to the school to educate the children shared a lot of information about the school and the challenges the students face in getting meals. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 71 The menu for both schools, consists of ugali and green grams or beans twice a week, ugali and greens twice a week and githeri (maize and beans) with porridge once a week. It’s a balanced and nutritional wholesome mix, tailored to local tastes. The children love the food and attendance has increased in both schools. A total of 1,674 pupils are now getting a healthy, nutritious and filling school lunch every single day. Recently we realised the real impact of this when a very poor family was referred to us by a community well-wisher whose daughter we had supported in secondary school. We visited the family and were shocked at their level of poverty. We learnt that 3 of the children were having school lunch at one of our schools thankfully. We asked the head about them and he said he had almost cried when he saw the disabled grandmother with HIV come to school walking on all fours for Open Day, but he didn’t want to burden us more. We are working with him to help the family as part of our family support programme. Below is some feedback from the schools at the end of 2024: Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 72 Maureen serving food at Luora Comprehensive School during a field visit Long line of students waiting patiently for their lunch Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 73 Help Change Lives DARAJA MBILI COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL The year 2024 has been a year of blessin85 to our sihool. We have honestly seen the hand of the almighty. Many, many good things have happened just to mention.. l. Abscentism has totally gone down because of the feedin8 programme. Every child has a menu in their heads and none wantsto missthè mènu. 2. We had cases of malnutrition and with the balance menu we have seen many healtl) issues gone down. We have learners with HIV/AIDS and are on medication, this has also helped them a lot in tlieir diet. 3. We had several dropouts learners who are returning slowly back to school. Some even come without uniforms. The street boys have also joined school because of lunch programmè. They see the school has home. They are ever in school because they are sure they'll get 3 meal from here we are able to mold them to be better people. 4. There has been no incident of teenage pregnancy this year. They got re-usable 5aniiary towe15. Most girls were being used because they lack sanitary towels, with your support they walk tall today. S. The learners are proud of help change lives and they talk well about you people. May Eod bless you. 6. In terms of performance this year end term results Posted very high marks, this shows that your support has yielded great harvest. 7. Lastly i wish to appeal to the donors that Daraja mbili is like a slum school. It has very many vulnerable pupils with very poor backgrounds and kindly am appealing to you people to assist ug in making uniforms and desks My greatest, greatest thanks to t￿le donors, thank you for the 5UPPOrt you gave 22 learners who joined form one this year. We do appreciate the work you liave done for us. Its only god, who will reward you, be blessed. The work you have done is beyond us, the love you've showed is beyond.. building houses for paients, paying school fees, treating us, shoppinE food for parents to support thè orphans we have. Surely it's God who can bless the work of your hands, shalom. Trustees, annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 74 School feeding at Daraja Mbili Comprehensive School. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 75 ## **6. Primary school education (£18,084, prior year £11,958)** - During the year, we supported more than 210 children in primary school. They belonged to families that we were supporting, and some were new referrals from head-teachers, where we assessed the families to ensure that they were truly vulnerable. - The students we support are part of our Kenyan Families Support programme. We usually support the entire family when we find a vulnerable family, to ensure a holistic approach covering shelter, food, education and medical treatment where necessary. - We support these students with school uniforms, shoes, bags, exercise books, stationery, school lunches and exam kits as needed. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 76 We buy school items, uniforms, books and stationery for the primary school students we are supporting. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 77 Such excitement! We bought new uniform for 145 of the most vulnerable students at Luora Comprehensive School, where we run a school feeding programme. They had been coming to school in really bad and torn clothing and were feeling very low amongst their peers. The headmaster requested us to help. The children were so excited and happy, and so were the rest of the students in the school, who celebrated with them. Really wonderful and heartwarming **�** . Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 78 Some of the uniforms we gave out at Daraja Mbili Comprehensive School, where we run a school feeding programme. Some students are literally on the streets and were coming to school dressed in rags. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 79 ## **7. Fighting period poverty (£13,294, prior year £19,842)** Period poverty is a lack of access to sanitary products, which leads girls to miss up to 6 weeks of school a year. This makes them fall behind and often drop out. After dropping out, many often get pregnant. Their lack of education prevents them from finding well-paid work, and the cycle repeats with their children. More than 2/3 of females in Kenya are affected by period poverty, and some have to resort to using mattresses, rags or engaging in transactional sex to get pads, which is simply shocking. Without this, they fall behind in school or can’t work to get food for their families, and so they have no choice but to resort to unsafe practices that put them in danger. These can also lead to UTIs and worse, that they don’t have money to treat. ## **7.1 Impact in the year** We continued our high impact project to significantly improve and transform the lives of these vulnerable girls in Kenya through the distribution of reusable sanitary pads for the whole menstrual cycle, that last for 3 to 5 years. ## **During the year, we distributed 2,161 reusable pad kits to vulnerable girls in 14 schools in Kenya, a vocational training centre and some through our Kenya Family Support Programme. We are so grateful to have changed so many lives.** That’s approximately 13,000 reusable pads, as each kit has 6 pads and lasts for a full menstrual cycle. We used donations to pay for the reusable pad kits and our trustees covered the transport, education, foreign exchange transfer and logistics costs. We educated over 4,475 boys, girls and women on menstruation, infections, how to use the pad kits, breaking taboos and being confident. The sessions were delivered by experienced trainers. The education is really valued and appreciated by both the boys and the girls, and helps girls live in dignity and comfort, as taboos are broken, and they are taught how to look after themselves and their health properly. They also get to ask questions that they would never have been able to in a safe setting and learn things that they are otherwise never taught as these subjects are not discussed openly. ## **7.2 Impact over the past 4 years** ## **We have helped more than 15,500 girls with reusable pad kits.** We have also educated approximately **26,000** boys and girls on menstruation and menstrual health management in 4 years! Thank you so much to all the donors who have made this happen over the years. We really appreciate it. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 80 Distributing reusable pad kits to 76 girls and educating 172 boys and girls at Emukangu Primary school during Pallvee’s visit to Kenya in February 2025. Photos below with our social workers Maureen (who did the training) and Maxwell (who supported with logistics and distribution). Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 81 ## **7.3 Survey of more than 3,000 girls using the pad kits** Last year we surveyed more than 3,000 girls all over the country who had been using the pad kits for more than 3 months. The enormous effort this took was more than worth it as the results were simply mind-blowing. They show the effectiveness of this simple solution to end the vicious cycle of poverty, where girls drop out of school due to lack of hygiene products, sometimes resorting to sex for pads: - 95% of the girls used the pad kits every time they had their period - 99% of the girls have not missed school since receiving the kit - 100% of the girls have not missed exams since then - 100% of the girls did not experience any teasing in school after receiving the kits - 94% of the girls said that the pads were comfortable - 77% said that they suffered less cramps when using the reusable pads Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 82 100% of the girls said that getting the pad kits saved them money. These are very difficult times in Kenya as the cost of living has skyrocketed. This simple act of helping poor girls save money on disposable pads has made a huge difference. Other major benefits - Girls can stop having to resort to offering sex for pads, which was happening in at least two of the schools that we helped, given the teachers’ comments. - It helps stop infections - a lot of the girls were using rags, blankets and mattresses that are unhygienic and spread infections. The teachers’ comments also highlight these benefits **:** - Girls are no longer wearing unhygienic materials to school when they have their periods. - Increase in academic performance and confidence. - The environment in the school got better and there is less blockage of the latrines because of disposable pads. - Teachers are no longer having to use their own money to buy pads for the girls who couldn’t afford to buy them. This shows that providing reusable sanitary pads is a very effective solution to keeping girls in school even when they have their periods, rather than being excluded by missing up to 6 weeks of school a year, dropping out, possibly becoming teen mums and being unable to pursue their dreams and fulfil their potential due to lack of job prospects. ## **7.4 Environmental impact** _Contents of a PadMad reusable pad kit with 5 pads that lasts for up to 5 years._ The pads are made of 100% cotton by a Kenyan social enterprise called PadMad, which employs marginalised women to make them. The pads are biodegradable, whereas disposable pads take 500 years to decompose. We estimate that approximately 2.1million disposable pads will be saved from landfill from the distribution of these 2,161 pad kits. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 83 ## **8. Special needs (£11,805, prior year £5,723)** ## **8.1 Introduction** - We helped support 60 special needs children and adults during the year, most of them in boarding school. Their conditions ranged from cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, Down’s Syndrome, intellectual disability, deaf and dumb, hydrocephalus, polio, osteogenesis imperfecta etc. - The children in boarding school are also helped with uniform and personal items, including nappies, soap, toothpaste and washing powder. - 35 of the children go to one boarding school in Kakamega, Kenya, called Emusala Special Needs School. We also supported the school with paying 4 of the staff, including 3 full-time caretakers and a physiotherapist. - Some of the children needed a lot of medical attention during the year, which we facilitated and paid for, including check-ups, physiotherapy, tests and medicines. Where needed, we also support the entire family with food, housing, toilets and medical attention (e.g. some children have mentally ill parents, a father’s hands got totally burnt in a sugar factory, and others live in poverty and some children live with aged grandparents as their parents have abandoned them). Home visits by our CEO, Pallvee, to the houses of special needs children we support in Kakamega, Kenya, in February 2025 Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 84 Help Change Lives Wonderful to vtsil Emusala School for special Needs Chihyren in Kakamega. where we are sponsonng 35 chikyren as tM)arders. And lo visit one of them at home, where he was recovering from a medical cOndit￿n that required many hospital visrts (which we funded) and home-based cate. Pallvee Shah Is v feding pyhjl In Kakamega, Kenya. 23 Febiuaiy Q At Dougla5'5 home. Such a sweet Chi￿ with the m05t beautifvl Smile We are Sponsoring him as a boarder at Emusala Special Needs school in Kakamega £s he has cerebral palsy. but he is curreniiy 81 home due to unexplained seizures. Maureen had spent 3 whole day Wlih him and his mother a day before this visiL taking him to the large government h05Pltal in Eldorel for t￿￿ts and specialist adviie. has issue5 Wlth hi5 brain and will need surgery s(x>n, which we will cover. See more Trustees, annual report and financial statements Help Change Lives | 85 At the home of a child we started supporting in the year with cerebral palsy. We started helping during the year with education costs, food, medical treatment for her and her mother and we also started a soap-making business for her mother. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 86 The special needs children we are supporting at Emusala Special Needs School in Kakamega. We support them with fees and boarding equipment. Pictured above are: 1) A little girl with Down’s Syndrome (bottom middle) who has swelling in her kidneys. We had tried to get her treated for a long time and were so relieved when she Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 87 was finally admitted to hospital over the Christmas holidays. We paid for her treatment, and she is much better. She still has tubes draining fluid from her kidneys attached to her and will need regular checkups. 2) Also pictured is a boy who can’t speak and has brain atrophy (bottom left), who we take for clinic checkups to Eldoret. We also pay for his medicine, which he will be taking for some time, possibly all his life. 3) On the bottom right is another boy who is on expensive medication and is not able to go to school, as he is uncontrollable, except by his mother. Pallvee visiting a child with cerebral palsy in Kakamega with Maureen and Maxwell. He also has GERD, and we spent a lot of time and effort taking him to different hospitals in Kenya for treatment. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 88 We are supporting others in different parts of Kenya too, with physiotherapy, special needs school and medication, including the children below. Helping a special needs child with a special cerebral palsy wheelchair when he became too big to carry, and also paying for his education and physiotherapy. Another special needs child we helped with special aids, a wheelchair, food and physiotherapy. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 89 ## **9. Small business support (£3,771, prior year £6,069)** During the year, we started many new businesses. We are very excited about this new empowerment programme, and hope that it will help many families become independent. The businesses range from tailoring, tutoring, selling mtumba clothes, making samosas, hairdressing, basket weaving, Mpesa and phone accessories shop and many others. I can’t resist a good samosa!! A new small business we have started for a young mum with a young baby in Kisii. She is making lentil samosas. A new business we’ve started for this teacher who was involved in a public transport accident that resulted in him losing his job, spending all his savings and becoming destitute, with a young family. We also gave him a laptop so he could start an online tutoring business. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 90 We started a new tailoring business in Kisii for this vulnerable young woman, whose father died. She is responsible for supporting her brother, who just started university; her sister who is sitting end of secondary school exams, and her mother. She was really struggling and was unable to meet all the demands on her. Her sister was constantly at home due to lack of fees. We paid the sister’s fees so she could sit her final exams. Maxwell met the brother, who is at university in Kakamega, and even travelled to Kisii to meet the lady. We have given the brother a laptop to help him with his studies (see photo with Maureen). She knows the trade, so we started this tailoring business for her and wish her lots of success. So beautiful!! A new basket weaving business we started. It’s for the mother of a student we started supporting, who disclosed that his father was very ill. He has developed a mental problem, and the family is struggling to get enough food or money for medicines. We wish them the very best with this new venture. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 91 ## **10. Miscellaneous donations (£1,084, prior year £250)** Help Change Lives gave out 356 warm blankets to the poor people around Sayla town in Gujarat in December 2024, in conjunction with Raj Saubhag Humanitarian’s monthly grains distribution to vulnerable families in the neighbouring villages. This included some blankets given to temple construction workers at the ashram itself. Pallvee and Parus, trustees of Help Change Lives, participated in the blankets and grains distribution, as they were visiting the ashram at the time with their family. We are aiming to do more work with this charity in the next financial year. Trustees’ annual report and financial statements **Help Change Lives** | 92